


Owls in the Night

by raindropfeathers



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Dick Grayson is a Talon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:14:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29154903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raindropfeathers/pseuds/raindropfeathers
Summary: Artemis and Robin go on a walk. Things happen, and Artemis learns some new things about her teammate.
Relationships: Artemis Crock & Dick Grayson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 95





	Owls in the Night

The mountain was quiet today. Well, quieter than normal. We had decided that everyone would hang out this afternoon. Wally had called in sick, said he had the flu or something. Robin was unusually quiet, M’gann had been cooking all day and had decided to ask Kaldur about Atlantis, and Superboy was watching static. I was bored out of my mind. Drawing away from M’gann and Kaldur’s conversation, I looked at the clock. It read 8:30. Aww, too late to watch the sunset. I grabbed the last burnt cookie, stuffing it into my mouth. It might have been peanut butter flavored once, but all I could taste was charcoal. I tapped my foot absentmindedly. I normally wasn’t a fidgety person, definitely not as fidgety as Baywatch, but I haven't gone outside all week, and it was getting to me. I glanced at the clock once more. Maybe a walk in the woods wouldn’t be too bad.

“I’m going out.” I declared. No one looked my way. M’gann and Kaldur were too involved in their conversation, and Superboy either didn’t hear or didn’t care. I’m inclined to think it was the latter. I looked at Robin, who had gotten down from a perch on the ceiling (why was he even up there? How did he get there? It was like twenty feet or something?). He tilted his head curiously and examined me. For what, I didn’t know. Maybe he wanted to see if I was lying, or if it was a trick? Why would I even do that? After a few seconds, he trained his eyes on my face. I froze. Robin looked far too old for his age, and far too mature. He radiated an aura of danger, not hostile danger, but general danger. 

“I’ll come.” I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding. Why was I even holding my breath? Was I scared? Worried? Did I think he was going to tattle on me? Was I waiting for his approval? Why did I even need his approval? Who was he even going to tattle to? Batman?

I shook my head clear as I followed him to the hangar. The walk was silent, the only sounds were our footsteps. Wait, not our footsteps. My footsteps. Robin was silent, not making a sound. I couldn’t even hear him breathe. Was this some sort of Bat thing? Could Batman be this silent? I could have sworn I heard him breathe before. Maybe Robin wasn’t breathing? No, that wasn’t right. Robin was human, like me. Like Batman. 

We came to a stop right outside the hangar. Wow, I hadn’t noticed him open the door. Maybe there was an upgrade so it wouldn’t make that god-awful screeching noise.

Robin looked at me imploringly. I blinked once, twice, three times before I caught the silent question. Where would you like to go? I looked around. I had walked the beach many times before, and it was too late for mountain climbing. I looked towards the forest. Wow, I completely forgot there was the forest here. Watching Robin, I tilted my head to the woods, a silent question. Would it be okay if we walked in the woods? A small smile tugged at his lips, and I saw a glimpse of the fourteen-year-old I knew so well. We started walking to the forest.

The walk was mostly quiet. I followed Robin since he seemed to know the way. Admittedly, I had only gone into the woods once, to get a wayward frisbee. Wally said it was haunted, but no one believed him. It just didn’t give off the haunted sort of vibe. 

Robin stopped in a small clearing. It was mossy and relatively clear of leaves and sticks, so I paused, listening to the sounds all around us. I heard crickets and frogs a little bit away, and the small rustling of squirrels and chipmunks. I heard a small stream nearby and saw a bat or two overhead. But most of all, I heard owls. And lots of them. I saw a flash of one in the tree nearby. 

“Do you hear them?” I whisper, startling Robin. Funny. Robin never gets scared. I can practically hear him scolding himself. 

“Yes.” He whispers. I honestly thought he was going to nod or something, with him being all silent today. I try to keep the ball rolling. 

“I love owls,” I say. “They are so majestic and wise. When I was little, me and my sister would try to find the owls at night. I always thought that owls were the smartest of them all, watching from above and flying in the night.” I feel weird telling him this, though I’m not sure why. It’s a perfectly normal thing to tell someone, right? Robin gives a small sigh.

“I hate owls,” He says, not bothering to look at me. He looks at the night sky, his gaze was almost wistful. He looks so at ease in this clearing, more than I’ve ever seen him. “They are always judging, always watching.” He shifts uncomfortably, blending into the shadows even more. “They prey on other creatures, swooping down from the darkness, sinking its talons onto the flesh of their victim.” He pauses, taking a shuddering breath. “They kill the creature and swallow its corpse whole, like a barbarian.” He turns to look me in the eyes. Deadly serious, he says “Owls are savage monsters who take no mercy.” Robin turns away, watching a squirrel that had just made an appearance. I feel as if there’s and double meaning somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what. Feeling the conversation and ease slipping away, I hastily open my mouth. 

“I guess owls have always made me feel uneasy,” I say, and Robin turns back to me. “I blame the rhyme,” I say as an afterthought. Robin was a Gotham kid, right? He surely knows what I’m talking about. Robin tenses for perhaps a fraction of a second, eyes going wide. Then he relaxes back into the shadows and gives a small laugh. Not a cackle, but a normal laugh. I smile, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something more. Like I just made a joke I don’t understand. I also sense a bitterness in the air, but not directed at me. Directed at… I don’t know… Gotham?

After a minute of listening to the owls, Robin turns to me. His gaze is curious but apprehensive. He cocks his head again, thinking. Not the first time, I wish I could see his eyes.

“Would you like me to get one to you?”

I almost miss the whisper, it’s so quiet. “What?” I ask.

“Would you like me to call an owl down?” He asks again, a little louder. I frown, confused. How would he do that? I nod. 

Robin steps towards the center of the clearing, closing his eyes. “It’s been a while since I’ve done this.” He admits, taking a breath. Robin tilts his head towards the sky, going completely still. He, somehow, looks both like a cat ready to pounce and a bird about to take flight. I hear an owl call break the silence, and it takes me a moment to realize it is coming from Robin. The boy is making a near-perfect bird call, effectively calling the owls to him. An owl soars across the clearing, swooping down in a perfect dive. Robin holds out his arm and the owl lands on it, like those people with trained falcons. Robin stops the call and turns towards me. He gives her a grin, stroking the wild animal.

“You have an owl?” I quietly explode, not wanting to scare the creature. The owl, a Great Horned Owl, I’m pretty sure, turns its big yellow eyes of me. I stifle a scream. I definitely see how Robin dislikes owls. 

“Nooooo…” He says frowning. That’s the Robin I know! I don’t have time to rejoice or anything ‘cause there’s a freaking owl staring at me. At my skeptical reaction, he huffs. “I don’t have an owl. I just know how to make them listen to me.” At my slightly less skeptical face, he brightens immediately. “Want to pet it?”

After a few minutes of petting the owl, which I named Lincoln, at Robin’s distaste, and a very informative conversation about owls that I didn’t remember, I asked the question that had been eating at me. “How did you do it? Call the bird, I mean.” Robin’s expression soured. 

“I made bird sounds and stuff and told him to come here. The owls like me, it’s very annoying.” He said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

“Why did you learn it if you don’t like owls?” I ask, stroking Lincoln’s wing. It seemed very tame, for a completely wild animal. Robin shrugged.

“I used to like owls, but then I had a bad experience with a few of them. And it’s great to know how to tell them to go away.” Once again, I feel like I’m missing something. 

“Did Batman teach you this?” I ask. The answer’s pretty obvious. Of course, he did. Robin probably knows how to call bats to him as well. Robin’s answer surprises me.

“No, Batman doesn’t know how to do this. It’s more of a family thing.” The owl flies off, and Robin rubs his arm. I follow him out of the woods. “I heard that my great-grandfather could do it too.” And he says it with such bitterness, such hatred, that I know I’m missing something to the story. But one look at Robin’s face stops and questions I have. I don’t pry.


End file.
